Tokyo Station

Tokyo Station (Tôkyô-eki) is Tokyo's main intercity railway station, although it is not the city's largest (Shinjuku Station), nor is it the busiest (Shinjuku again, with Ikebukuro Station in second place). This is mainly due to the fact that it is only served by a bunch of JR lines and the Tokyo Metro's Marunouchi Line: most of the other subway lines stop at separate stations within a several-block hike of Tokyo Station.

The newer, bigger, glassier Yaesu side is where the Shinkansen—the high-speed lines plied by what gringos like to call "bullet trains"—terminate. All of the Shinkansen, with the exception of the new and runty Kyushu Shinkansen, ultimately lead to these platforms. The Yaesu side is also where JR's intercity buses stop, and houses a rather large Daimaru department store.

Despite being only second-biggest in Tokyo, Tokyo Station is still huge. The ten above-ground platforms fill a breadth of about 250m, and the longest Shinkansen platforms are 500m long. Counting the underground passages that link the station to surrounding office buildings and subway stations, Tokyo Station stretches out over the better part of a square kilometer. It's big, it's crowded, and it will get you just about anywhere you want to go.

Somewhat oddly, there are a few series of platform numbers in Tokyo Station. The regional train platforms are numbered 1 through 10, the Shinkansen platforms are 14 through 23, and there are also two sets of four platforms underground, each of which is independently numbered 1 through 4. So there are actually three very different "platform 3"s at the station. See the rough diagram below:

If you visit Tokyo Station today (2006), you'll notice that much of it is under construction. JR is extensively renovating the station, by restoring the Marunouchi side to its historical glory and by rebuilding the Yaesu side with a new entryway and twin towers at either end to house office and shopping space.